


unrooted

by orphan_account



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, M/M, jung jaehyun is a sad boy, kumiho au, one-sided markhyuck, there's renhyuck but it's not the main focus of the story, with slight modifications
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-18
Updated: 2019-03-18
Packaged: 2019-11-23 17:17:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18154763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: jung jaehyun receives a letter saying his grandfather left a house for him as an heirloom. taeyong the nature spirit who can shapeshift into a white fox is seeking refuge in said house due to [REDACTED]. see what happens when their lives collide :-)





	unrooted

**Author's Note:**

> i love bnha and i love mark. that's it send tweet!!! :-)

The loud ringing of his phone woke Jaehyun from his sleep. It was already noon, and according to this phone, he had missed 14 calls from his mom.  
“Oh, shit!” he cried while struggling to untangle himself from his blanket. “Shit shit shit shit shit!”

  
Deadlines were deadlines in the Jung family. On his college graduation day, exactly three weeks ago, his parents gave him a three-week period to discern and decide whether he was going to work in the Korean-American company their family co-ran, or whether he was going to stay in Seoul and weave his way into the workforce on his own.

  
His mother called again, and he picked it up immediately. “Hey, Mom. I’m sorry I missed y-”

  
“Jaehyun, we’ve already given you enough time. I’m very disappointed how much you’ve been just… lazing around since you finished school,” his mother interrupted, sounding more exasperated by each syllable.

  
“Mom, I’m sorry. I… worked out twice this week. I wouldn’t call that lazing around.” He grimaced at how stupid he was sounding. He knew that what his mother meant by “lazing around” was not finding a job, not doing his laundry, relying on instant noodles because cooking was… too much.  
Well, lately, everything had been too much.

  
“So, have you made a decision yet? Your father and I cannot reserve a place for you in the company forever, Jaehyun. If you say yes, you’ll have to fly here immediately. There are a lot of potential young people straight out of Ivy League schools here in the US applying for a place in NeoTech, but we chose to wait for you. Yet it seems like you are not going to accept the offer.”

  
Jaehyun didn’t know what to say. At first, he was so certain his decision would be a yes. He would work his ass off under NeoTech, earn impressively high income, buy everything he wanted, and never have to worry about money again. Not so bad, really.

  
But lately, he had been so conflicted. He wanted time to think. Three weeks just wasn’t enough. “Mom, I’m really grateful for this. I wanted to say yes but, right now, I’m having qualms…”

  
“About what?”

  
What could he do? Say yes and book a flight to California? If he was being completely honest, that decision didn’t appeal to him as much as staying in his apartment to have more time to meditate about what he really wanted to do with his life.

  
Jaehyun gulped and tried to express his thoughts. “I’m having qualms about working for NeoTech. It’s just that... I-I want to figure out first what I really want to do with… uh, with my life.” He only hoped his stuttering would at least tug at his mother’s considerate side. He missed that side of hers. Recently she had been very rigid.

  
His mom sighed. “Okay. That means you are rejecting the offer. I understand.” She almost sounded… sad and worried. “I hope you’ll be able to reflect on what you really want with your life soon. You’re a smart young man, son. I’m sure you’ll land a job. If you decide you’d like to work for NeoTech, talk to me and your father. We’ll arrange an interview for you so that you can apply the usual way any other applicant does. Goodbye. And cook a real meal for yourself for once.”

  
His mother hung up before he could thank her for being so thoughtful. He collapsed into his bed again, feeling drained from the conversation. He felt like he needed a shower just to drown out his thoughts, so he took one. Picking out a plain shirt and some joggers was the best that he could do. He didn’t plan on going out today anyway. Besides, lately his creativity in fashion had been out of town.

  
When he headed to the kitchen to actually cook a real meal this time, his flatmate Haechan barged in with a package in his hands.  
“What’s up, hyung? Just got this snack package from my mom. God, she’s the best,” his flatmate said happily, which he couldn’t help feeling insecure about. His mom would rather send him a check than allot time to gather his favorite food into one package.

  
“That’s… awesome,” Jaehyun said quietly while turning on the stove and putting the pan on it.

  
“Oh, and you have mail, too! That’s weird. Nobody ever sends you anything.”

  
Usually, when Haechan teased him about something, he’d say something snarky back. But he was too surprised to come up with one. He even almost dropped the egg he was holding. ”Mail? This isn’t a good time to kid, Haechan.”

  
“No shitting, hyung. Here.” Haechan handed him a white envelope.

  
It looked rather… bare. No stamps or anything. He turned it, and on the front it said “For Jung Jaehyun” and underneath that was his current address.  
“Maybe it’s from a secret admirer,” Haechan whispered over his shoulder.

  
“What about you give me some privacy, huh?” he told him. Haechan shrugged and retreated to his room with his package.

  
Jaehyun’s stomach growled as he stared at the envelope, so he left it unopened as he continued cooking. ‘Who could it be from?’ he thought. His parents never wrote him letters or sent him postcards. That left them out of the question. And believe it or not, the only relative he knew in Korea was his other flatmate slash distant cousin, Mark, who was currently on a vacation in Japan with their friends Ten, Johnny and Taeil. And well, those mentioned names were his only friends, including Haechan. They weren’t the type to send him stuff.

  
After eating, he opened the envelope. It had a very brief letter in it. What struck him was the penmanship. Whoever wrote it had a pretty shaky hand. However, the entire letter was still readable.

  
It was from his grandfather, saying that he was leaving his house to him as heirloom. There was no name, only a signature at the bottom. However, at the back, an address was written. Jaehyun thought the name of the place was familiar. It was a town not that far from the city.

  
This whole thing seemed like a scam. His grandparents were dead. He never knew his grandparents on his mother’s side, though, so he had goosebumps as he read the letter again.

  
_Jaehyun, I’m sorry I never revealed myself to you. This house is all that I have to make up for the things I have not done as a grandparent._

  
He ran to his room to search the address on his laptop, but there seemed to be a problem finding it, so he printed out a roadmap from the city to the little town where the house was situated.

  
A few minutes later, he called Haechan and told him about the letter.

  
“Strange,” was all Haechan could say.

  
“I know. I’m still skeptical about this. But to think that my mother has shunned every question I have for her in terms of our other relatives here in Korea… well, it could be true.”

  
“So, what are you gonna do about it, hyung? According to the map, you could drive to it in 1-2 hours. If it turns out to be true, you could sell the house. Then split the money between us since I gave you the advice.”

  
Jaehyun considered it, except the part where they sell it and split the earnings in half. “If it turns out to be true, I want to know who my grandfather really was. Maybe you are right, I could sell it.” Still, he needed more advice. So he took out his phone and Facetimed Johnny.

  
Unfortunately, it was Ten who answered. “Hey, Jeffrey!” The guy said in his robe.

  
“Uh, hi Ten-hyung. Is Johnny there? And please stop calling me Jeff-“

  
“Hey, man!!!” Johnny finally showed up. But he did not have a shirt on.

  
Haechan laughed at their lack of decency. “You guys go to Japan and suddenly y’all can’t afford wearing decent clothes?”

  
“Hey, I’m fully-clothed!” Mark also joined in, but he was a little… overdressed.

  
“What the fuck are you wearing, Mark?” Haechan asked, disgust in his tone.

  
“Oh, remember that anime I love? BNHA? This is Todoroki’s hero costume, and I finally bought it! Do you guys like it?”

  
Jaehyun and Haechan glanced at each other while Mark imitated who must be Todoroki while saying some lines in Japanese.

  
Johnny interrupted. “Okay, okay, we get it, Mark, you are a huge weeb. But first, why’d you guys call? Is something going on? You never Facetime unless it’s urgent.”

  
“Jaehyun-hyung’s gonna be rich. Somebody sent him a letter saying his grandpa left him a house as inheritance!” Haechan broke the news to them.

  
Johnny, Ten, and Mark freaked out all at once and kept on screaming that Jaehyun was going to be rich.

  
“Guys, stop it. I’m still very conflicted about this,” Jaehyun admitted. “What if… it’s all a scam and some mugger is waiting for me in this address? I can’t afford to die yet. I have yet to prove to my parents that I did the right choice not to work for NeoTech.”

  
“WHAT?!” His friends exclaimed in utter shock.

  
Jaehyun merely shrugged, ashamed of his poor decisions but not really caring enough to explain further. “My indecision acted up again, I guess.” He was not ready to confess that he did not say yes to NeoTech because he simply did not want to. He wanted everyone to think that he just couldn’t decide yet.

  
Haechan was also at a loss for words. He opened his mouth but shut it again then tried to mumble a helpful comment but no intelligible words could get out from him.

  
Jaehyun sighed. “It’s not the end of the world, okay? I’m content with staying here, as of now. There’s lots of jobs out there and you guys act as if NeoTech is the only company ever!”

  
Ten shrugged it off. “He’s right, we’re overreacting. Besides, he just got handed a hugeass blessing which is this heirloom the letter is talking about.”

  
Johnny considered it. “Yeah, and if you don’t wanna keep the house, you could sell it, then give me 50% of the earnings since I gave you advice to put it in the market. Sounds good, bro?”

  
Haechan protested, “Hey, I told him that already!”

  
Jaehyun ignored Haechan and Johnny, and thanked Ten for understanding. “So, you guys think I should check this house out? It could also be a key to knowing more about my grandparents, since Mom never told me anything about them.”

  
The three nodded enthusiastically. Mark added, “Bring Haechan with you so if it’s actually a killer waiting for you, you won’t die alone!”

  
Haechan was about to jump the screen but Jaehyun noticed and quickly thanked them for the advice and hung up.

 

“Hyung, you’re not going to. You can’t make me.”

  
Yet, ten minutes later Jaehyun had successfully dragged a grumpy Haechan into his car. To appease him, Jaehyun let him pick songs for the car ride. And so, Jaehyun revved the machine to life, not knowing what really awaits him in that mysterious address, yet feeling a rush of adrenaline he hadn’t felt in a long time.


End file.
